


Five a Day

by AB__BA



Category: Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-17
Updated: 2021-02-17
Packaged: 2021-03-12 06:47:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,714
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29505729
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AB__BA/pseuds/AB__BA
Summary: Shin-chan goes from a prick to a lovable "fool" during his first few weeks at Shutoku.In-universe origin story of Midorima's five selfish requests a day.
Kudos: 6





	Five a Day

Takao has never been a self-centered person. He was the point guard in his middle school and a big supporter of team-play (in spite of all the good it did against Teiko). Point guards were usually unsung heros anyway– nobody expected them to shine individually no matter how good their teamwork or their passes were.

He also had a younger sister who occasionally needed help with homework. And with lifting heavy things. And fighting off a stalker (yes, that actually did happen once).

The joys of being an older sibling.

So yes, he was usually happy to do an occasional favour for a friend or family member as he believed in cosmic karma. Good vibes beget good vibes, right?

Enter, Midorima Shintarou.

Takao’s own vendetta against the former Teiko athlete aside, the entirety of Shutoku’s basketball club were unimpressed with Midorima’s numerous self-centered quirks after having spent not even twenty minutes in his vicinity.

On the first day of try outs, Midorima strode briskly out of the locker room, nonchalant despite lagging every other try out hopeful by a solid fifteen minutes. Takao later overheard that he had a bizarre pre-game ritual of changing shirt first, then pants, tying his shoes right then left, unwrapping his finger tapes in a specific order, inspecting his nails and occasionally filing them down, filling his water bottle, drinking three sips and then refilling again, and then finally carrying whatever the lucky item for the day (today’s appeared to be a musical box) into the gym and setting it at a precise angle next to his water. The rest of the try out hopefuls were already running laps around the gym and the term “diva” began to circulate in hushed murmurs.

Later, when the practice matches started up and Midorima started sinking impossibly long threes back-to-back, it was difficult to contest his ability as anything short of prodigious.

Takao knew he was no slouch. He had, after all, made the regular team in his middle school. However, the first day of try outs at Shutoku were – quite simply – the worst hell he had ever experienced in his entire life. He was completely exhausted from head to toe, was barely able to stay upright and was sweating from pores he didn’t even knew existed. Miyaji-senpai finally called out the end of the day’s training and Takao was so grateful he could die.

It was no wonder Shutoku high was considered a Tokyo District King.

As Takao headed towards the locker rooms, a loud “WHAT?!” from the court got his attention. He turned to witness the ensuing exchange between the third years and Midorima.

“Is this guy for real?” one of the first year’s seemed to have overheard the first part of the on-court conversation. As he passed by Takao, muttered “he wants to use the entire court to practice with by himself? Just how entitled can you get?”

Takao’s first thought was, _He wants_ more _practice? Is he even more of a monster than-_

_No._

A cursory glance revealed Midorima to be just as tired as everyone else. He was sweating profusely and there was a subtle tremor in his left leg. _His muscles are just as sore as anyone else. What’s he playing at?_

Things on the court seemed to have gotten rather heated, with one of the senpais having grabbed Midorima by his collar in what appeared to be a shake down coupled with a colourful and heated lecture. Midorima said something back and was finally let go with a visible huff from the senpai.

Hurriedly turning back around in a bleated attempt to pretend he wasn’t staring, Takao finally made it into the locker rooms and changed out of his uniform in record time. As he grabbed his things, he daydreamed about a great big steak at home with miso soup and pickled radish.

As he (sorely) passed the gym a final time, he saw Midorima alone, throwing shot after shot from the center line.

\---

As Midorima became a regular fixture in Takao’s life, he started to notice the other boy’s quirks more and more. It was impossible to ignore his lucky items, for one. After weeks of seeing Midorima with random daily items, the rest of the team had come to accept that his item would permanently be occupying a spot on the bench, or next to it when it was too large. Another was Midorima’s insistence on doing things in a particular way, in what Takao was almost positive was an undiagnosed obsessive-compulsive disorder.

On days when they had practice matches with other schools, Midorima would always ask to be put in the starting lineup, despite not yet even having been declared a regular. (He would be, of course, but that didn’t lessen the grating effect emanated from his lack of respect.)

The straw that finally broke the camel’s back was after a typical grueling day of practice where Midorima insisted he couldn’t help clean up as it was “a bad day for Cancers”. Of course, this got him a thorough tongue-lashing from not only the senpais but the coach as well. Takao burst out laughing at the absurdity of the situation. For someone so smart, Midorima sure was something of a _fool_ sometimes. His request was (obviously) denied because first-years cleaned up the gym and mopped the floors, _no exceptions_.

Takao at this point had taken on a closer-to-friendship type relationship with Shin-chan and burst out in fresh laughter as he got out the mops, handing one to Midorima. “Shin-chan – what the hell was that? I’ve never seen you so blatantly try to slack off before! I know you’re tired, but you can’t have thought that you could get out of it just by asking, did you?”

Midorima maintained his less-than-impressed face, slightly reddened from his embarrassing wringing-out in front of the entire team for his selfish request. “Oha Asa predicted a very high risk of injury today for Cancers performing manual tasks.” At this, Takao snorted with more laughter, laughing into his closed fist which did nothing to hide his amusement whatsoever.

“What – are you scared of injuring yourself on this mop?” Takao childishly held up said item, wet-head first, and inched closer to his victim.

Shin-chan’s eyes widened and he actually took a sizeable step backward…kicking over the bucket of mop-water, slipping and cashing to the ground along with a shower of baseball bats that had inconveniently come loose.

“TAKAO!”

“Oops. Maybe Oha Asa should have warned you about mop trolling to be more specific.”

\---

The following day, during practice, a special meeting was called. Coach Masaaki was there, along with the other regulars which now consisted of Midorima and Takao.

Coach cleared his throat. “Shintarou – the purpose of this meeting is to discuss your behavior both on and off the court. While I recognize your unique abilities, many have expressed concern with your, frankly, numerous and senseless selfish acts.” There was a good amount of somber nodding, mainly from the senpais. Takao was trying his best to maintain a serious face.

“I am not here to further lecture you for yesterday’s request – although that was a prime example of what I mean by a “selfish request.” I think, and the rest of the regulars can tell me if you agree – that we can work on a resolution to avoid future mishaps.”

Midorima’s expression revealed nothing.

Otsubo-senpai chimed in “What kind of resolution, coach?”

Coach closed his eyes with a small sigh, as if already admitting defeat. “How about Shintarou gets five selfish requests a day?”

Immediate reactions from everyone else.

“What the hell?”

“You’re allowing this?”

“He gets FIVE a day??”

\- And one Takao pursing his lips in clearly suppressed laughter.

Coach obviously expected some form of the outrage that ensued. With his eyes still closed, he pinched the bridge of this nose, probably regretting his life choices. “Look, we’ll say five for now. Anything he asks that is unreasonable beyond going to the bathroom will count as two or more requests. That fair?”

The senpais still had plenty to say but obviously the coach was not having it. “I’m going to say that Shintarou is a special case.” He turned to said athlete, “I don’t need this going to your head, but I’m also pretty sure you know the rules well enough to know when you’ve broken them. In the past three weeks, I’ve given you more lectures than I have in the entire five years of basketball coaching before that. I don’t see you changing your habits anytime soon and, frankly, most of your selfish requests are harmless so I think this is the best resolution for everyone involved.”

Coach called the meeting after that and practice seemingly resumed as normal.

Coach evidently knew that Midorima just could not help using up his requests. He really was a quirky, albeit talented, shooting guard. Midorima used up one request to put his lucky item (a glass vase) on the bench. Another two were used on running to the convenience store to quickly repurchase another glass vase after a stray basketball knocked and shattered the first one. A fourth one was used up while Midorima re-taped his fingers and skipped ten minutes of cleaning up, and the final one on his usual taking up of the entire court for after-hours shooting practice.

The senpais had some fun disagreeing on how many requests his shooting practice ought to take up, but ultimately decided they would be nice and give the court to Shin-chan for one “just this once”.

Over the next several weeks, the Five Selfish Requests per day granted to Midorima became a running joke. Someone even made a handwritten list and tacked it on the bulletin board outside to track what cost what number of requests (“It’s called setting precedents, Shin-chan”).

Evidently,

  * Being fifteen minutes late to practice was two points.
  * Asking to have possession of all the balls in a quarter was three.
  * Skipping practice to watch the Kaijou practice game with Seirin was five.
  * Lying about not seeing all of the inter-high games but going anyway without the team was an entire week’s worth



So yes, Midorima Shintarou most definitely was a self-centered person. But for Shutoku, he was worth the hassle of his silly quirks.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! This was super self indulgent and I tried to incorporate tidbits from the show wherever possible to keep things believable. I need Midorima to be the protag of a spin off because him and Takao are the cutest partners.
> 
> Please drop a kudos and a comment! I love reading comments.


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